City of Dreams
by Nice6uy
Summary: A combination of Digimon and Stravaganza. Kouichi travels to Bellona, the Talian city of dreams....
1. Prologue

Prologue

_Note from the fan:_ A short prologue to begin a story. I certainly hope you like it, but whether you like or hate me please do so in a polite manner...

A boy quickly ascended the 894 steps of the Torre de Asanolli, a pile of manuscripts in his arms. He panted heavily as he painstakingly climbed the flight of stairs. He tripped as his destination came into view; the scrolls fall and unfurl across the floor. A lady in formal robes at the top scrambled around, doing a poor job of hiding the telescope behind her.

"Who is it?" yelped the woman, clearly nervous out of her wits. "Oh. It's you." She quickly regained her composure. "Did you retrieve the correct documents?" she asked, double-checking the scrolls. She moved them across the floor, kneeling down, holding her candle closer for inspection. Everything seemed to be in order. She rolled them back and stacked them next the telescope, looking into it once more.

It was strange. It was very strange. The planets were in total chaos. They we're moving in ways never recorded before. It was as if the world was about to end. Hermes was moving in the wrong direction. This wasn't too unusual, since the messenger god was know to retrace his steps in order to find the truth. Business would be bad though.

Ares was nowhere in sight. This was disturbing. The charts the boy had brought up showed that Ares was supposed to be there. The last time Ares disappeared the Reamorian emperor had murdered the legislative assembly in an attempt to seize absolute power. The empire fell that day, and chaos ruled for over one hundred years, Talia was thrown into disarray. Hopefully something that horrible would not happen this time.

Poseidon was still here. He had appeared quite some time ago, and had stayed in the same spot ever since. How strange that it had no where else to go; Poseidon distracts easily and never pays attention to one area for too long. The ruler of the sea would only complicate things for everyone. His mist of illusion would be a dangerous hazard in the times ahead. Like a ship at sea, a lighthouse would be needed to guide Talia through towards safety.

The woman consulted the charts again and frowned. Never have the planets aligned like this. Even Cronus, the planet of fear and contraction, stood alongside Uranus, the planet of freedom. The strangest thing was Hades. The planet of extremes, of death, of retribution. Always the lonely one, it only appears once every few hundred years. Things we're not good in the least.

All except for Aphrodite. It was a good thing she had recommended to the former Regent Rodolfo to have the wedding under the presence of the goddess of love. The Duchessa must be truly happy, for the goddess had decided to stick around a bit longer. She would most likely be gone by tomorrow though. _At least they had a descent wedding ceremony_, she thought to herself, remembering the Di Medici weddings a few months earlier. Of course the Duke of Giglia, head of a rival state,tried to interfere, but foiling him wasn't as hard as they thought. There were no deaths this time, and the new Duke seemed to have tired of trying.

The woman sighed, and continued looking at the stars. There was nothing left to see so she took out a mirror from inside her robes, laying it on her lap. She closed her eyes and took a collective breath. At first glance, one would think that she was just a weary mother, resting her eyes from a long day. No one would've ever suspected her of high treason, partially due to the fact of her gender. It was for the best, she hoped, but deep in her heart was a longing to be recognized as more than a female. She opened her eyes and looked back into the mirror.

"Senator Rodolfo," she called, as the mirror swirled to reveal a man in his late forties. He appeared to have been sleeping. "So sorry to interrupt you in your sleep Senator, but something is afoot. The stars are aligned for something terrible to happen, and I'm afraid that our brotherhood might be in trouble." The woman was uneasy.

The boy who had only gone out of sight was intently listening in to their conversation.

"Yes Madolina, I too have seen a threat coming, but there is nothing we can do until we are sure of what it is. All we can do is wait patiently until the threat reveals itself."

"Yes Senator, but I think it would be wise to warn the rest of the stravagante, as we might need our collective efforts soon in the future." Madolina sighed, gathering her thoughts. "This may be the biggest challenge we may ever face."

_I don't own the Stravaganza series. Do I look like Marry Hoffman to you?_


	2. Recollections

Chapter 1

Recollections

_Note from the fan: A _small_ recap for those who have not read the Stravagante series or the Digimon Frontier series. Sorry if some of you find it annoying._

Kosei was late. His plane was leaving in ten minutes. _If only I hadn't searched through the entire box of junk, _he thought as he hailed a cab. _All that searching and what do I have to show for it? A tacky quill._ It was actually a very nice quill, ornate with silver swirls and loops entwining around it. _What would anyone do with a quill?_ It was a pathetic gift to be giving his rejected son.

Kosei was desperately trying to mend his relationship with Kouichi, his son from a previous marriage. He had been able to convince Satomi, his second wife, to try and befriend the other son, and things seemed well enough between the two, but there was still a rift between him and Kouichi that seemed deeper than just abandonment. It was the same with Koji, Kouichi's twin, the son he had gained custody of. It all came down to how they were reunited. There was something peculiar about the entire situation. He just hoped that his sons would be able to see that he wasn't entirely wrong in breaking up with Tomoko, then maybe things could get better.

_How can I convince them when I can't even convince myself, _Kosei thought after the cab driver finally figured out he wanted to go to the airport. Both the driver and Kosei had heavy accents so they had trouble communicating. On their divorce papers, the stated reason was intolerable differences, but Kosei knew that that wasn't the case. Then he thought of the lengthy custody cases over the twins._It was for them. We broke up over them,_ he thought as the car drove quietly past the streets of Devon, England. He knew that idea was stupid the moment it was conceived in his mind. Their divorce had hurt the twins the most, so it wasn't because it was best for them. Kosei sighed. He had run out of ideas already. _Maybe it was just meant to be,_ he thought as the cab pulled up toward his terminal. The car stopped and he got out. He stretched his legs in preparation for the long plane-trip back to Japan. His meetings here weren't over yet, so he'd be coming back here again. Why he didn't just stay here until after all the meetings we're over with he didn't know. At least the company would be taking care of the tickets.

The Duchessa really was truly happy. The Di Chimici family was not so much of a threat anymore, now that Grand Duke Niccolo was dead. Her city would remain safe from their rule, for now at least.

She was married. It had been three months of happiness for the lucky couple. Luciano had finally settled down and accepted his fate here. All thoughts of returning back to his old world were finally fading. It was about time too.

She thought back to when they first met. She was attempting to impersonate a man and become a gondolier, one of her youthful schemes. She would never know how it could've turned out because she had bumped into Luciano, or Lucien he was called in his world. He was so clueless in the beginning, like a small child. She had taken care of him until he saved the previous Duchessa, who later turned out to be her mother, from an assassin named Guido Parola. Things we extremely dangerous and chaotic back when the Di Chimicis were at their strongest. The assassin immediately reformed after his capture and served her mother after she faked her death during a second assassination attempt. Lucien was later captured and kept overnight in Talia which somehow lead to his death in his home world. Soon after wasthe Stellata and the semi-death of the Di Chimici's youngest crippled son Falco. Falco had actually stravagated to Lucien's old world and now lived with Lucien's old parent's under the name of Nicholas. Georgia, another stravagante, was the one that made the arrangements. Stravagation, Stravagante, Stravagate: all strange words to her. She had only first heard these words from being with Luciano. He was apprenticed to Signor Rodolfo, whom later turned out to be her own father. It was confusing at first, but she was able to understand the concepts of the Stravaganza.

It all started when a man, William Dethridge, a natural philosopher, or an alchemist he was called in his world, attempted to turn lead into gold. Instead of the desired affect, he had created a portal from his world to Talia's world. Talia is the equivalent of 16th century Italy. William Dethridge had come from the Elizabethan era in London and had first arrived in Bellona. Whenever one stravagates, one's conscience leaves it's body, and a new body is formed in the adjacent world. This usually comes about by falling to sleep. One must also be holding a special talisman coming from the adjacent world. When one is "visiting" another world by means of Stravagation, one does not have a shadow. It is not currentlyknown how to open different portals other than the one between Dethridge's world and Talia.

Since you lose conscience when you Stravagate, William was unconscious in the strangest hours of the day. People mistook him for dead and buried him alive. He later awoke and dug his way out of his grave. When the people saw him, they we're relieved at first, but more of these long droughts of unconsciousness convinced the people that he was associating with the devil whenever he slept. They threatened to burn him at the stake. Dethridge, scared out of his wits, Stravagated to Talia. He later hid in Montemurato, since he was discovered without a shadow in the superstitious Bellona.

He was later found by Luciano and Rodolfo with a shadow. He was no longer visiting this world. His body in his old world had been destroyed. He would not be able to go back to his own world the same way he came as Lucien did. They were stuck in Talia.

Whenever someone changes home world by losing their body, their shadow reappears in the visiting world and there is a time lapse. The separate worlds' times will either move faster or slower depending on the direction of "translating" as they call it.

She had learned all she knew from her experiences with the Stravaganza brotherhood. The Duchessa, also called Arianna, trusted them with her life.

o O o O o O o O o

Koji was not happy. He didn't see why his father insisted on coming back home when he still had business abroad. If he were in his father's place, he would've stayed and gotten it over with. Koji scowled at the thought of all the trouble his father was causing. He looked over at Kouichi to make sure he was comfortable waiting. His father was an hour late. Apparently he had missed the first flight...

Kouichi was nervous as always, although he was a bit more indifferent nowadays. His father was trying so hard, Kouichi didn't know how to react to all the attention. He shuddered and pulled his green jacket closer as he thought back to how his father had first looked at him when they were first reunited. That look of fear, sorrow, and regret. His father crying would've been a less traumatic experience. Kouichi knew he would not be able to forget that expression. It was like his father had branded him as his own when he saw Kouichi for the first time in ten years. No matter how hard his father would try, Kouichi knew things could never be normal between them.

"Flight number 369 coming from London, England has arrived," said a flight attendant. "All first class passengers boarding this flight back to London, England please form a single line and have your passports ready please. Thank you."

The twins got up. Satomi appears from a crowd with a paper bag in her hand.

"Has he gotten off yet?" she asked.

"Not yet," replied Koji.

A few seconds later, Kosei came out holding his jacket over his shoulder. He was rubbing his red eyes.

"Are you okay dad?" asked Kouichi.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said quickly, "just still a little sleepy. Guess what I got for you?"

"You didn't need to get me anything dad…" answered Kouichi blandly.

"I got something anyways so here you go," Kosei said, smiling. "Here you go." He pulled out the silver quill and twirled it around, causing it to glisten.

Kouichi smiles politely. "Thanks dad." He said, taking the present. Then saying mechanically. "I'll take good care of it."

_To be continued..._

_Lame lame lame lame lame. I hate it, don't you? I don't own Digimon Frontier or the Stravaganza series I just summarized in a paragraph..._


End file.
